


Being Alone and Feeling Lonely

by coolpointsetta



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Airachnid was kind of a bitch but deserved better anyway, Airachnid was underrated, Backstory dump, F/F, Major character death - Freeform, a drop of angst, get in the feels on a Friday morning, more screentime, slave coding mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26914486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolpointsetta/pseuds/coolpointsetta
Summary: See, Airachnid was always alone. But right now, for the first time in eons, she was lonely.And she hated it.
Relationships: Airachnid & Arcee, Airachnid/OC
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Being Alone and Feeling Lonely

**Author's Note:**

> Da da da! 
> 
> Finally the little one shot I've been mentioning for weeks is finally here! I wanted to do something with a little bit of angst, but no other characters were coming to me. After re-watching season 3 and RiD, I realized once again that Airachnid really got no explanation as to what happened to her, so this is my little theory for her. 
> 
> My OC belongs to me, but Transformers Prime and all its characters belong to Hasbro. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!!

Airachnid had learned long ago that she was never going to be the kind of femme that people wanted to spend their time with. After a while, she had stopped trying. 

She was a textbook psychopath with little feeling of obligation to anyone but herself. She didn't understand the need to form attachments as the mecha in her life always seemed to fail her, no matter what she had done to attempt to rectify their relationship (which, admittedly, wasn't much). She preferred to run alone, and she was as cunning as she was sadistic. Not the type of person others wanted to be around. 

Airachnid had heard about every insult in the book, every slur directed at her as she tore apart at a mecha's body. She'd been called a traitor when she'd abandoned Starscream in the Harbinger, she'd been called many things by her own subordinates on the _Nemesis_ when they thought she couldn't hear them, and she'd been called many, many colorful things by Arcee whenever they classed paths. 

Airachnid was many things. 

But she was no idiot. 

So she knew that she was dying, and dying fast. 

Soundwave - that blasted, faceless mech - had banished her to the moon with her hundreds of Insecticons to save the Nemesis from total annihilation, but he had unknowingly banished her with the Terricon code running in her frame. Silas - Breakdown, whatever that _thing_ was - managed to bite her neck before she was able to slip out of his slime soaked grasp, and she felt the immense hunger moments after she stepped onto the moon's surface. 

Airachnid shifted a little, her gears groaning with the lack of oil and energon and the increased effort it took to make her systems run. Her form was beginning to gray, and her small, shaky intakes were becoming more and more shallow. 

Yes, she was dying. And she didn't have much time. 

She had run out of her Insecticons days ago. Airachnid forced her head upward and looked at the bodies of her beloved Insecticons, drained of their precious life blood by her own mouth. Their forms were long since turned gray and lifeless, their mouths open in silent screams. 

Airachnid blinked slowly as she recalled the way her Insecticons had squirmed under her grasp, trying to break free but couldn't no matter how hard they tried. It hadn't been because Airachnid's grip had been too tight, quiet the opposite. They had been unable to refuse her; all she had to do was ask, and they willingly stepped forward to offer their lives to her. 

Airachnid never in her life thought she would be grateful to _Shockwave_ of all mechs for his mad creations, but the slave coding was one she was positive she could not have survived without. 

Airachnid managed a small chuckle, which was almost more painful than it was worth as it hurt her entire body to do it. She felt her spark give a weak pulse of protest before it fell back into its steady rhythm. 

It was a little ironic of Soundwave, to choose to send her all the way to Cybertron's moon. Airachnid had always _hated_ Cybertron, she'd hated it before the caste system became as bad as it did, she hated it before the planet became so stained with energon one could hardly walk across the surface without seeing one dead body. She'd always tried so hard to leave, to be alone, to rule something. 

And Soundwave made sure to take everything she _hated most_ and make it the last environment she was in before she died. 

See, Airachnid was always alone. But right now, for the first time in eons, she was lonely. 

And she hated it. 

"Oh Aere, honey," 

Airachnid turned her helm weakly and her jaw dropped open in shock. For a moment, all the pain and starvation left her body as she recognized the mecha sitting before her. 

She was a shorter femme, maybe a little smaller than Airachnid herself, with light green plating that glowed in the pale starlight. Her optics were a warm golden color, her mouth hidden by a silver mask over her face. 

Despite what everyone thought, Airachnid had been capable of love once. There had once been a femme that she had a whirl-wind romance with that lasted for a few eons, Airachnid completely enthralled by her. Her name had been Silla, and she had been perfect. They became bond mates a few months into their relationship, inseparable for every moment afterward. 

She had been walking home one night after work on the rough side of Kaon, and never came home. 

Airachnid had felt the bond growing weaker and weaker until it eventually snapped several days after Silla went missing, and even though she had seen it coming didn't make it any easier. 

Airachnid had cried alone for days upon days, the pain rendering her a sobbing mess on the floor of her bathroom. She went weeks without refueling and sent herself into shut down, until one of her close friends had come to revive her and save her minutes before death. When she finally emerged from her apartment, she wasn't the same Airachnid from that moment on. 

By no coincidence, Cybertron began its downfall mere weeks afterwards. 

Airachnid realized with a stab of pain that no friend of hers could rescue her now. 

"What have you done to yourself?" Silla asked, reaching a hand forward and placing it on the side of Airachnid's cheek. The black and purple femme sighed and leaned into the touch, her optics closing in her small moment of joy. 

Memories replaying in Airachnid's mind of all the times Silla scolded Airachnid for staying out too late, or getting into a bar fight with mechs three times her side. Airachnid never backed down, but she loved the special attention her bond mate had given her. 

"You're not really here, Silla darling," Airachnid choke out, every word of the painful truth like acid on her throat. "I can only see you because I'm dying." 

Silla stood up straight, her hand that had been on Airachnid's cheek falling back to her side. "You're so dramatic, my dear. Get up; you're not dying yet. I expect you home in one hour, I've made energon ravioli that you love so much." 

Airachnid tried to reach out to stop her, to call out to her, but the words died in her throat and she realized her fingers had barely twitched from their original position. 

Silla continued walking until she vanished over the edge of the moon, out of sight. 

The hallucination was over. 

Airachnid had been capable of love once, her spark glowing brighter whenever it was around Silla. Silla had brought out a side of her that no one else had ever seen, and when she died, it had become deeply buried among snarky comebacks and sadistic actions. 

Airachnid's spark had only room for one great love. 

"Pathetic." 

Airachnid felt dust chipping off her neck as she turned sharply, her body beginning to freeze up and fade into ash. 

The blue and pink plating was easily recognizable, and Airachnid cursed Primus above and Unicron below that the last thing she would see was _Arcee_. 

The Autobot knelt down next to Airachnid, her hands folded together across her legs, her face set in a grim expression. 

"Absolutely pathetic. I really expected better from you, the great and scary Airachnid. The one who killed my partner and evaded me for eons on several planets, is bested by a _Terricon Code,_." Arcee spat out, her optics holding the real fire of Arcee. 

Airachnid knew that speech was impossible now; her voice box had run completely run out of energon; she checked her reserve and saw then that her level had dipped into the critical zone. 

She had minutes. 

"Just so you know, before you go," Arcee's voice turned smug for a moment. "I outlived you. My legacy will live on, while you get remembered for being a sociopath who died alone on the moon." 

_Alone_. 

Airachnid's optics closed, her breaths becoming more painful now. She opened her optics for a moment and noticed that Arcee was gone; the whole scenery had gone pitch black. 

If Airachnid could have gone back and fixed one thing in her life, she wasn't sure she would. 

She would still go out that one night to a bar after she had gotten fired from her job and found Silla, and she would still have become bond mates with her. 

She still would have joined the Decepticon cause when Megatron began the uprising, her anger and need for blood fueling her. 

She would still have killed Tailgate - and so many others - for not the Decepticon's sake, but her own. 

She still would have sabotaged Shockwave's lab and stole the slave coding needed to rule her Insecticons. 

She still would have defected days before Cybertron went dark, hunting down rare species among the stars and killing them for sport. 

No, Airachnid would not have changed a thing. 

"What has war done to you?" 

The final voice Airachnid had not suspected, so familiar and so strange at the same time. It was a voice that she never expected to hear ever again.

When Airachnid opened her optics - she couldn't even move her head anymore, her spark was too weak and her gears were frozen in place - she saw herself standing in front of her. 

Her clone was standing regally, her hands on her hips and her extra legs pressed against her back. There was a frown on her face, but not a disappointed one. Her optics were golden instead of red, but other than that she was exactly the same as the real Airachnid. 

"You became so strong, but allowed yourself to give into your most basic desires. Look where it's gotten you." A scowl finally settled on her lips. "Dying, two seconds away from death, where Arcee and her Autobot pals will outlive you, where hundreds of mecha's vengeance will be satisfied with your death." 

Airachnid couldn't speak anymore, so she waited for Clone Airachnid to continue. 

"Do you know who I am?" The Clone asked. "I am you, before you allowed yourself to become feral. To become a slave to Megatron, even though you could not see it. I am the you who loved and was loved. What happened to me?" 

The Clone's legs twitched against her back and for a moment, Airachnid thought she was going to get struck through the heart and killed, just to be put out of her misery. 

It's what she would have done. 

"You see, Airachnid, you may be dying now, but I died a long, _long_ time ago." 

Clone Airachnid knelt down before herself, a small smile - a real, genuine smile - rising on her face. "You never gave yourself a break, a chance to grieve. But now, here's your chance."

The Clone raised a servo and pressed two fingers against Airachnid's forehead. 

Airachnid's spark spazed, desperately trying to beat on. What must have been the only remaining energon in her body gurgled out of her mouth, running down her chin and onto her chassis. 

Her spark was running itself exhausted, trying to push any last reserve of energon through her systems. 

There was a hand on her shoulder then, and when Airachnid turned, Silla was back by her side, her optics warm. Airachnid's chest bloomed with a warm feeling, one that she had not felt in eons. 

Airachnid sucked in one final breath, her chest becoming clear and her optics slowly closing.


End file.
